1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to medical equipment, and patient transport, support or immobilization devices in particular.
2. Background Information
Certain medical patients have neural, emotional and/or neuromuscular conditions which result in repetitive and substantially involuntary movement. This is often observed in patients who rock back and forth for hours at a time. For purposes of this discussion, all such disorders will be referenced as “repetitive motion disorders”, regardless of their underlying causation or precise expression.
These same patients often have limited, if any, control over otherwise intentional movement. In other words, if they lose their balance, or otherwise began to fall from a bed or chair, they will not often be able to arrest their fall, and, in such cases (particularly with the elderly) serious injury usually follows.
Because of the propensity for injury, restraining patients as described above is a natural response on the part of hospital or rest home facility staff. However, this too can be injurious in its own way.
Restraining a patient to the point of preventing substantially any movement may result in the truly cruel effect of making the patient feel like the proverbial “caged animal.” This may be true whether or not the patient can express this feeling (as often they could not because of their overall condition). This may even be exacerbated to the extent that the patient's repetitive movement is, at least in part, a product of an emotional disorder—the patient simply “must move” in order to dispense or prevent high levels of stress.
In addition to the emotional impact of restraint, there are physical hazards as well. Straps which hold a patient against a stationary surface (a bed, chair, etc.) can cause abrasions and sores. Merely being retained in a single, stationary position relative to a bed or chair can result in “bed sores.”
No attention is known to have been directed in the patient care field in relation to accommodating patients with repetitive motion disorders, both in terms of their sense of emotional well-being and their safety.
The present inventors have determined that, in order to avoid the undesirable entrapment issues described above, as well as to provide for physical safety of patients with repetitive motion disorders, one must accomplish two primary objectives: (1) provide a patient support apparatus which safely supports the patient as against slips and falls resulting in unintended separation from the support apparatus; and (2) provide functionality for the apparatus which safely and smoothly accommodates, rather than impedes or resists the patient's movement.